Reflections on Meditating with the Body

“When we attend to the tension in our bodies, we attend to the tension in our life.”

I spent last week in Crestone, CO diving into myself; deepening the relationship with my body and opening the soma communication channel to better navigate my life.  Though I have been practicing body based meditation for years, and facilitating meditation groups this single week was more transformative than even I imagined. All of the areas tension creeps into my body and into the energetic spaces between me and another made themselves seen.I felt the subtle flutter of my heart when entering into a conversation with a stranger. I was introduced to the warm comfort walking silently together brings; and the throat congestion accompanied by a rock heavy heart of watching a grown man shamelessly cry next to you. I felt grief, shame, joy, deep gratitude and love. More importantly I FELT. Deeply and with no mental reserve, I felt.

When we begin to live embodied, we begin to re-connect with our true nature.  We remember what is true, and if expansion, connection and love are at the core of beings fear, anger, shame no longer need to be feared. You have the capacity to hold all else. You can move through sadness and anger and uncomfort without it consuming you.  When you land in your body, the desire for self improvement morphs into the desire to dismantle all the lies and habitual patterns masquerading as the truth.

This work is not easy. Transitioning back home, into the fast pace of every day life has proven that. Giving attention to the tension holding patterns protecting me from facing previous pain is not easy.  This work does not blind us from the suffering of the world as a collective. This work does not end when we taste the brief, moments of liberated exansion. This work, this mending the relationship with our body, allows for a greater capacity to face and handle the deeper work we are doing. This work reminds us, we are stewards of our experience, gurus of the source(ress) inside ourself.

The power of a sangha is real. A group of strangers holding space for one another to peel layers from the heart, in turn exposing years of tension masked by habitual patterns, is one of the most beautiful happenings. A call within myself to be, just as I am has been answered.  Corners of my life have been forever illuminated and I am changed by this experience. No matter how hard; no matter how brief; I choose this illuminated, vulnerable life. I wish this for all of you, for all of US.

To each and everyone one of you, my sangha, I give endless thanks.